Windmill.



A J. CROWLEY.

WINDMILL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. I 5. 19x5.

Patented NW. 28, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

IV I/EN TOR l1 TTOR/VEVS rm: mmms PEYERS cc. rnomurua. wasnmcmu, o, c,

A J. CROWLEY.

WINDMILL.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 15. ms.

Patented Nov. 28, 1916.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

1 0 a 7 7 f J T1 lma 2 7 .1|L "H n m 1 r m 1 m W C i M W0 Q m w A w z 1d i 1 2 m 0 0 m I 3 1 M A. W m 5. a E M. f 2 X m/mv TOR drwwf firowk zATTORNEYS WIT/M8855 M/QMWW UNITED l' @FFlWF.

WINDMILL.

mo em.

Application filed September 15, 1915.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW J. CROWLEY, a citizen of the United States,and a citizen of Folsom, in the county of Union and State of New Mexico,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Windmills, of whichthe following i s a specification.

My invention relates to wind-mills, arranged to revolve in a horizontalplane, and one of the main objects thereof is to provide such a device.which takes advantage of the full force of wind currents by a system ofmovable vanes which tend to defiect the currents from one to anotheruntil the entire force thereof is expended.

My invention is fully described in the following specification, of whichthe accompanying drawings form a part, in which like characters refer tolike parts in each of the views, and in which Figure 1 is a sectionalplan view of my invention taken on the line 11 of Fig. 3, showin thehinged vanes in conditionally assume positions; Fig. 2 is a sectiontaken on the line 22 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 isa side elevation showing meansfor locking the vanes; Fig. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view thereof;Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional view of the lock; and Fig. 6 is asection taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5.

In the drawings forming a part of this application I have shown awind-mill employing a plurality of hinged vanes yielding in a resilientmanner to wind pressures though only to an extent which continues themas operative units of the mill, whereby the wind currents aid instead ofretarding the mill operation after they have entered the zone of millrevolution, and continue to so aid the mill operation until the forcethereof has been entirely expended or until they have againpassedoutside of the said zone.

My invention comprises a central shaft 7 which is rotatable upon abearing 8, preferably anti-frictionally as shown, and is stayed by meansof guys 9 led to any convenient points, said shaft 7 being illustratedas provided with a gear wheel 10 enmeshed with a inion 11 on a shaft 12carried in suitable earings 13 and having a pulley 14 thereon whence thepower generated by the mill may be transmitted to any desired point,this power take-off apparatus being subject, however, to changeaccording to Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 22, 1916.

Serial No. 50,757.

' conditions and forms no part of theinvention other thanfor thepurposestated.

Adjacent the upper end of the shaft 7 I provide four main radial arms15, 16, 17, and 18, braced by bars 19, 20, 21, and 22, the latter ofwhich serve as supports for four supplemental arms 23, 24, 25, and 26,all .of the arms being braced by bars 27 at the outer ends thereof. Thisarrangement of arms is repeated adjacent the lower end of the shaft 7,and also in a plane intermediate the upper and lower sets of arms, thearms inthe same vertical planes bearing the same reference charactersthough two distinctive and separate wind levels are produced thereby.More than two levels could be produced by multiplying the sets of arms,as will be understood, and the explanation of the operation will beconfined to one level and the parts in the several vertical planes willbe given the same reference characters. The main arms are held inhorizontally separated relationship by means of vertical bars 15, 15 1516 16 16, 17 17 17, 18', 18 and 18, respectively, and the supplementalarms are similarly held by means of vertical bars 23, 23 24 2 1 25 25 26and 26*, respectively, and the brace bars 27 are similarly held by meansof vertical bars 27 i Hinged to the vertical bars 15*, 16 17 and 18 arevanes 15 16 17 and 18*, respectively, and similarly hinged to the bars15", 16", 17 and 18*, are vanes 15", 16, 17 and 18, and similarly hingedto the bars 23, 2 1 25, and 26 are vanes 23, 24, 25, and 26 all of whichvanes open in the same relative direction. The vanes are normally heldin the respective radial planes by means of springs 30 with theexception of the vanes 15, 16", 17 and 18 which have coil springs 31retarding their movement into the respective vertical radial planes, andit will be noted that the closing movement of the vanes is preventedbeyond the respective radial planes by the vertical bars in their pathsof movement, and the opening movement of the vanes is limited by thevertical bars in their paths of movement in this direction, as isclearly shown in Fig. 1. All of the vanes are adapted to be locked intheir respective radial planes by means of locks on their respectiveclosure limiting vertical bars, this being shown fragmentarily in Figs.4, 5, and 6, each lock consisting of a casing 32 containing a springactuated bolt 33 of the spring latch type which is adapted to beretracted by means of a bell-crank lever 3.4 having a cable 35 connectedwith its outer end. These cables 35 are led downward through suitableguiding pulleys 36, Fig. 3, to a ring 37 which is slidably movable onthe shaft 7 and is adapted to be forced downwardly by means of a handledcam 38 or equivalent, thus releasing all of the vanes collectively whendesired, but I may provide separately operated latches for theindividual vanes, or for certain sets of vanes, as will be understood.

Assuming the direction of the wind to be from the bottom of the firstsheet of drawings, it will be seen that the vanes 25 obstruct the windand the mill turns, each of the outer vanes successively following intothis mill operating position, and the mill is turned anti-clockwise. Inthis movement the vane 18 had yielded slightly to the wind and the vane26 still more so, and the successive vanes in the outer set movingtoward the bottom of the sheet yield in this manner in the degree ofwind effect thereon. air currents which had impinged on the vane 25 weredeflected toward the inner vanelS and passed between it and the shaft 7to impinge on the vane 15 lending its share to the mill revolution, andthese currents were again deflected to the vane 16 and forced the sameopen against its spring in the degree of wind force, thus again aidingthe mill operation. The air currents which cause the vanes approachingthe direction of the wind to yield against their springs also pass tothe vanes on the far side ofthe mill, such as 15 and 23, opening themagainst their springs suflieiently far to impart an angular velocitythereto to aid the mill operation, and these currents being deflectedtherefrom impinged on the vanes 16 and 16*, at an operative anglebecause of their yielding to the force of the air currents. The windsforce may be expended by this time but, if not, the vanes last namedbeing carried around with the mill into positions of inoperativeangularities, the air currents may pass out of the mill on the far sidefrom the direction of the wind. My intent is to have the inner vanesmoved toward closure positions against their springs successively asthey'a-re carried into the path of the wind in a degree to impart anoperative a'ngularity thereto as well as to deflect ,the air currentstoward other vanes which likewise yield to the force thereof, but thisyielding being resisted sufliciently by the respective springs toproduce the desired results;

The general direction of the arrows in Fig. 1 show the paths of the windat the moment of beginning mill revolution, as also, as far as possible,their directions The while the mill is revolving, only enough of thesearrows having been shown to enable any person skilled in wind-mills tounderstand the operation of my mill.

When desired, the vanes may all be locked in their respective radialplanes and little if any mill revolution occurs because of the balancedresistances on each side of the shaft 7, although it is possible thatsome degree of revolution might result from the fact that alternateradial arms carry but one vane in each horizontal set of vanes, and thiswill tend to destroy this balance in slight degree, especially in viewof the fact that the inner vanes on the two-vaned arms are normally openand resist closing because of their springs.

My invention therefore consists of a windmill provided with a pluralityof sets of hinged vanes, one set opened by the wind against springs andthe other set closed against springs by the wind, the degree of closingor opening movement causing deflection of the air currents from vane tovane to take full advantage of the force of the air currents as long asany force exists.

Vhile I have shown a present preferred arrangement of mechanicalelements to accomplish the desired results, I do not limit myselfthereto, but may make changes thereover, within the scope of thefollowing claims, which do not depart from the spirit of my inventionnor sacrifice its advantages.

Having fully described my invention,

what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A wind-mill, comprising a support, a vertical shaft rotatablethereon, a plurality of radial frames carried by said shaft, a vanehinged to the outer edge of each frame and movable into and to one sideof the plane of its frame, a spring for resiliently resisting movementof each vane out of the plane of its frame, a supplemental vane hingedat its outer edge to alternate frames between said first named vanes andsaid shaft, and movable into and to one side of the plane of its frame,and a spring for resiliently resisting movement of each supplementalvane into the plane of its frame.

2. A wind-mill, comprising a support, a vertical shaft rotatablethereon, a plurality of radial frames carried by said shaft, a vanehinged to the outer edge of each frame and movable into and to one sideof the plane of its frame, a spring resiliently resisting movement ofeach vane out of the plane of its frame, a supplemental vane hinged atits outer edge to certain of said frames between said first named vanesand said shaft and movable into and to one side of the plane of itsframe, a spring resilientlv resisting movement of each supplemental vaneinto the plane of its frame, and means for locking each vane to itsframe.

- and movable into and to one side of the plane of its frame, a springresisting movement of each vane out of the plane of its frame, asupplemental vane hinged at its outer edge to certain of said framesbetween s rin resistin movement of each su le- Gopies of this patent maybe obtained for five cents each, by addressing the mental vane into theplane of its frame, means for locking each vane to its frame, and meanscommon to all said vanes for unlocking the same.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in thepresence of tWo subscribing Witnesses.

ANDREWV JACKSON CROWLEY.

Witnesses:

JOHN M. DUNN, Jon GRIGSBY.

Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

